Electrically driven amplification of terahertz acoustic waves in graphene

Aaron H. Barajas-Aguilar, Jasen Zion, Ian Sequeira, Andrew Z. Barabas, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Eric B. Barrett, Thomas Scaffidi and Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi ()
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Aaron H. Barajas-Aguilar: University of California, Irvine
Jasen Zion: California Institute of Technology
Ian Sequeira: University of California, Irvine
Andrew Z. Barabas: University of California, Irvine
Takashi Taniguchi: National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki
Kenji Watanabe: National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki
Eric B. Barrett: University of California, Irvine
Thomas Scaffidi: University of California, Irvine
Javier D. Sanchez-Yamagishi: University of California, Irvine

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract In graphene devices, the electronic drift velocity can easily exceed the speed of sound in the material at moderate current biases. Under these conditions, the electronic system can efficiently amplify acoustic phonons, leading to an exponential growth of sound waves in the direction of the carrier flow. Here, we show that such phonon amplification can significantly modify the electrical properties of graphene devices. We observe a superlinear growth of the resistivity in the direction of the carrier flow when the drift velocity exceeds the speed of sound — resulting in a sevenfold increase over a distance of 8 µm. The resistivity growth is observed at carrier densities away from the Dirac point and is enhanced at cryogenic temperatures. We develop a theoretical model for the resistivity growth due to the electrical amplification of acoustic phonons — reaching frequencies up to 2.2 THz — where the wavelength is controlled by gate-tunable transitions across the Fermi surface. These findings provide a route to on-chip high-frequency sound generation and detection in the THz frequency range.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46819-2

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